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The Crash Mystery Is Solved

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The Crash Mystery Is Solved The Mystery Is Solved. (See http://pacoletmemories.com/CrashStory.pdf) Thanks to the members of the Pacolet Facebook groups most of the questions surrounding the airplane crash in the Goucher have been answered. This is a summary of what we know about the tragedy . Who - Three members of the New York Air National Guard died. What - The men were crew members of a B-25 “Mitchell” bomber that crashed. They were on a training mission flying from Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York to Donaldson Air Force Base in Greenville, South Carolina. Where - The crash occurred close to the intersection of Soapstone Road (SC Road S-11-128) and the White Plains Rd. near the White Plains and Goucher communities. When - The plane left Griffiss Air Force about 1:30 PM on the afternoon of January 10, 1954. It crashed slightly before 5 PM that afternoon. Why - It is not clear exactly why the plane crashed. Eyewitnesses on the ground described the plane as having engine trouble before the crash. Evidently, there was an explosion and or fire while the plane was still in flight. Something happened to cause the tail section to be separat- ed from the main fuselage. The tail section landed about 1 ½ miles away from the main wreck site near the White Plains colored church. Pacolet Facebook Groups Information I am indebted to members of the group for supplying critical information on the crash. Jackie Banks and Vicki Lawson provided information from the Gaffney Ledger newspaper. Easter Fisher sent me articles from the Florence Morning News newspaper. Particularly helpful was a telephone call from Harold Addis who remembered the crash when he was a small boy. You can read Harold’s story later in this article. Harold’s information allowed us to determine the exact location of the crash. Read the entire story of the crash on the following pages. 1 The Complete Story of the B-25 Crash It was a cold Sunday on January 10, 1954 at Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome New York. The three-man crew of the B-25 medium bomber had been doing preflight checks of their airplane. They were preparing for a training mission that would take them to Donaldson Air Force Base in Greenville, South Carolina. The distance for the trip would be approximately 700 miles. At their normal cruising speed of 230 mph, the trip would take less than four hours. Under combat conditions the B-25 might require five or even six men in the crew. The trip to South Carolina was to be a routine training flight with only a three-man crew. The pilot was Col. Paul C. Schauer, 42 years old. He was also the special assistant on recon- naissance and intelligence to the Griffiss Air Force Base commander. The copilot was Major Russell B. Kraus who was 38 years old. The third crewman was an enlisted man, the flight en- gineer, Airman First Class Frederick W. Walker, who was only 22 years old. All three men were stationed at Griffiss Air Force Base. They taxied out to the runways, and got permission and instructions for takeoff. They were air- borne about 1:30 PM. They climbed to altitude and set their course to the southwest bound for Donaldson. They were soon out of New York State and flew on to cross Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina before entering South Carolina. Evidently, things went well until they were almost in sight of Donaldson Air Force Base and were only about 40 miles away. Then something strange happened. The bomber contacted the Spartanburg Airport about 4:30 PM asking permission to land there because it had “a patient aboard” needing hospitaliza- tion. There are no surviving records to tell which of the crewmen was ill or what the problem was. Spartanburg cleared the plane for a landing and said the ambulance would be waiting. Before it could land something went terribly wrong. The plane crashed shortly before 5 PM just off the White Plains Rd. near the White Plains and Goucher communities in Cherokee County, SC. All three crewmen were killed instantly and the wreckage burned for several hours. The plane broke apart in midair just before the crash. The tail section landed about a mile and a half away from the main wreck site near the White Plains colored church on Tindall Mill Rd. 2 Tail landed near here. Vicinity of the Crash. View of the general crash site area. 3 Closer view of the crash site. Eyewitness accounts say that the plane was having engine trouble shortly before the crash. In his investigation the County Coroner said the plane was definitely burning before it hit the ground. He said the tail assembly, a toolbox, and portions of Air Force clothing, described as an officer’s, were found scattered within a radius of 1 to 2 miles from the main body of the plane. They all had been partly scorched and burned. The airplane had almost reached the Spartanburg airport when it crashed. The crash scene is only about 13 miles from the airport. At their regular cruising speed they would reach this in less than four minutes. It is possible that they could have seen the airport before they crashed. The crash scene was about 40 miles away from the original destination of Donaldson Air Force Base. They would have been there in about 12 minutes. 4 Crash Location About 13 miles or 4 minutes away. Spartanburg Airport Relation of the crash site to the Spartanburg Airport. Crash Location About 40 miles or 12 minutes away. Donaldson Air Force Base Relation of the crash site to Donaldson Air Force Base. 5 The Crew (The following information about the crew has been obtained from several sources.) The pilot, Col. Paul C. Schauer, had reported to Griffiss Air Force Base in August 1953. He was educated at Dayton University, Indiana Technical College, and Georgetown University where he received a Master of Arts degree. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry reserve of the U.S. Army in February, 1933. He was named a flying cadet in October, 1938. A year later he was rated as a pilot after graduating from primary and advanced flying schools at Randolph and Kelly Field in Texas. He received his regular commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Corps in 1940 and was assigned to active duty in the Air Corps Reserve. Col. Schauer saw extensive duty in the South Pacific during World War II. He was the com- mander of the 4th Photographic Reconnaissance and Mapping group from July 18, 1943 until June 7, 1944. The group, based successively on New Caledonia, Espiritu Santo, Guadalcanal, and Morotai, flew reconnaissance missions over enemy territory to supply air force units with target and damage assessment photographs and to provide army and navy units with intelli- gence on Japanese troop concentrations, installations, shore defenses, supply routes, and ship- ping. After the war, Col. Schauer was instrumental in developing mapping and charting techniques for use by the Air Force. In 2006, he was posthumously inducted into the National Geospatial- Intelligence Agency (NAG) Hall of Fame. Read more at: (https://www.nga.mil/About/History/ NGAinHistory/Pages/ColPaulCSchauer.aspx). 6 Colonel Schauer was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Maj. Russell B. Kraus was the copilot and was 38 years old. He was from Detroit, Michigan. He was chief of the Intelligence Indexing Office, Reconnaissance and Intelligence Division at the Rome Air Development Center (RADC). Unfortunately, nothing else is known about Major Kraus’ service. Major Kraus was buried in Michigan. 7 Airman First Class Frederick W. Walker was the flight engineer and was 22 years old. He was from Snyder, New York. Also, nothing else is known about Airman Walker’s service. Airman Walker was buried in New York. Changes The world has changed a lot since that cold day in January, 1954. Both Griffiss Air Force Base and Donaldson Air Force Base have been deactivated and no longer exist. There are no more B-25’s in service with the Air Force. Indeed, there are no more propeller driven bomb- ers in service with the U.S. Air Force, all of them are now jets. What has not changed is the type men in the military service of the United States. They are brave and resolute and still prepared to lay down their life for their country just as those three men did 64 years ago. 8 Marker to Remember the Crew A marker is badly needed near the crash scene to remember these three brave men. I am not sure how to proceed to get such a marker erected. There’s a state agency that erects roadside historical monuments. However, I don’t know if they would do one for an airplane crash. Since it is in Cherokee County, it is possible that the county government or Historical Asso- ciation might get involved. One possible approach is to form a committee of people interest- ed in erecting a marker. This committee could be organized on Facebook and could deter- mine how to get the marker erected and what it would cost. Fundraising for the marker could also be done using the Pacolet groups on Facebook. The Pacolet Memories website is available to help in this effort. 9 Sources for The Story Gaffney Ledger Thanks to Jackie Banks and Vicki Lawson for bringing to my attention the article from the paper on Jan. 12, 1954. The text of the article is as follows: Plane Radioed Twice Shortly before Crash Air Force officials began an invesgaon Monday into the crash of a B‐25 twin‐engined “Mitchell” bomber in the White Plains secon Sunday aernoon where three crewmen were killed.
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